Even salad can play Amor
by viv-heart
Summary: Fruit/Vegetable store AU because I can, ZoNa, past ZoSan, for the Sharethelovemonth on tumblr. Day 4. Nami is nice to her customers. Sometimes too nice.


**AN: This is my entry for the Sharethelovemonth'15 on tumblr. Thanks to aerle and myladyday for organizing this event.**

 **Please enjoy :)**

 **((ANd yes, I love ZoNa))**

* * *

Nami looked up from the book she was reading when the bell rang, signalizing that somebody entered the small fruit and vegetable store owned by her family. The person that entered was one of the regulars, a tanned muscular man with green hair, who usually accompanied his blond boyfriend. "Huh? You are alone?" she called out with mild surprise. "How rare!"

The man shrugged and put down the sunglasses, revealing a pair of red eyes, and started to look around the display without saying a word.

On one hand, Nami knew that it wasn't her business why the man, who's name she didn't know even after he visited the store on a regular basis for almost an year now, looked like he had cried his eyes out, on the other, she was an incredibly curious person and had a kind of scientific interest in drama.

"Can I help you?" Nami asked after watching Zoro walk around the shop for a while. He seemed like he had no idea what he was doing there. Thinking about it, Nami wasn't sure if she ever saw the guy pick up something himself. It was always his boyfriend who chose what they would buy.

"Ah.. Yeah," he stopped in front of the tomatoes and turned to face Nami. "My sister asked me to buy some Chinese Broccoli and Poha Berries. I see Broccoli but how the hell can I tell that it's Chinese? And what the hell are even those berries?"

Nami laughed at the outburst. "Chinese Broccoli is a vegetable called Gai Lan. Do you see the starfruit over there? " she motioned to the front of the store.

He looked around in confusion, searching for said fruit.

"Gosh. You really have no idea about anything more exotic than a tomato, do you?" Nami moved from behind the register and walked over to the front of the store where her customer was looking around cluelessly. "This is starfruit," she hold up a small orange fruit. "And this is Gai Lan," she took a small plastic box filled with some kind of salad from the bigger box next to the starfruit.

"And the berries?" the man asked just as the door opened and a blond man Nami recognized as the others boyfriend entered.

"Zoro?" he called out in surprise, his eyes equally red as Zoro's. "What are you doing here?"

Zoro who had turned around to hide his face took a deep breath before answering. "Perona asked me to buy some things. And this is the only fruit store in the neighborhood I know-"

A sad smile appeared on the blond's lips. "Alright. I will come back later. Have a nice day mylady," he waved in Nami's direction, who had been watching in silence the whole time, in an unusually calm manner and left the store with long fast steps.

Nami looked over at Zoro who was slightly shaking, tears rolling down his cheeks. He turned away upon noticing Nami's eyes on him but the shaking didn't stop.

"You can rest a bit in the back if you want," Nami whispered and took the box with the vegetable Zoro had taken just before his now ex-boyfriend had appeared from his hand.

Zoro nodded and followed Nami to the small room behind the door labeled "employees only".

"Do you want some tea or something?" she asked when he sat down on one of the three chairs around the small table. There were three – each for one member of her family. Even though her mother had remarried some years ago and the man brought an adoptive son himself, the three chairs for her mom, Nami and Nojiko stayed in Bellmare's fruit and vegetable shop. Cora and Law didn't help out anyway and rarely visited so it didn't matter.

"Something stronger would be better, but I doubt you have that here," Zoro let out a low, bitter laugh.

"Actually, we do," there was a cheeky grin all over Nami's face when she walked to a box in one of the corners an started digging through it. "My sister and I used to hide alcohol here so our mom wouldn't find it and somehow we still keep it up. I'm Nami, by the way." When she found what she had been looking for, Nami stood up and walked over to the sink and took two clean glasses that stood next to it. "I hope rum is okay. I am sorry but we don't have anything to mix it here."

"Zoro. And that's already more than I could have asked for," he wiped away the tears that ran down his cheeks with the back of his hand.

Nami hold out one glass in Zoro's direction and he took it with a quiet thank you. They sipped the drink in silence for a while, both seemingly deep in thoughts.

"Thank you for being so understanding even though I am a stranger," Zoro broke the silence, still staring holes into the floor.

"It's fine," Nami muttered not looking up either, "I guess I can relate to what you are going through."

* * *

Nami was about to close for the day after she accompanied the older lady from the neighborhood to the front door when a familiar person appeared in front of her.

Zoro raised a hand to wink at Nami from behind the glass and she unlocked the door again with a small smile on her lips. He hadn't come around for several weeks and looked much better than last time she had seen him.

"I am sorry to come in after closing time," Zoro started, scratching the back of his head. "The bus took a different route than it should have."

Nami rose an eyebrow at that, but stepped aside so he could enter. "What do you need today?" she asked.

"Ah...It was something with P... Plataea... Maybe?" Zoro said while searching his pockets for the piece of paper where he had noted the name of the fruit.

Nami shook her head, trying not to laugh. "I doubt that your sister asked you to buy Plataea. It's an ancient Greek city. I believe you are looking for Pitaya or dragon fruit as it is called by most people."

"Oh, really?" Zoro's ears turned a shade darker. "You are probably right. Is it pink?"  
Nami walked to the back and leaned down to fish out the dragon fruit from one of the boxes. "See for yourself," she said while raising her hand with the fruit like a trophy.

"Well, I am sure this is what Perona wanted," Zoro muttered to himself when he saw the bright pink fruit. His sister liked the colour more than any sane human being should.

"Do you need anything else?" Nami asked from behind the register where she had already packed the fruit into a plastic bag.

"That's all." Zoro walked to the back to pay. "Maybe, except... I would like to invite you out for coffee as a thank you for... you know what I'm talking about."

A wide smile spread over Nami's lips. It was clear that it was very important to the man who usually carried such a stoic and somewhat dangerous aura. Besides, there could not be any other intentions "behind it since he was gay. "Thank you, I will gladly take you on on the offer."

"When do you have time?" Zoro was smiling as well.

"Well.. Give me a moment," Nami leaned on the counter, her eyes closed. "I have exam period the next two weeks so maybe after that?"

Zoro nodded. "Sure, that's fine with me."

* * *

"Is it a bad time?" Zoro entered the crowded store and almost bumped into Nami who just picked up an empty box.

"Depends on weather you want to buy something or get coffee," Nami replied just to turn to a customer seconds after.

"Coffee," Zoro followed her to the front of the store, watching the mess with interest. "What's going on here?" he asked while Nami rang up the items from yet another customer."I haven't seen this place this crowded before."

"It's our adventure Wednesday," Nami explained. "Every month on the first Wednesday exotic fruit and vegetables are cheaper than usual and we carry even some sorts you can't regularly buy, what brings a lot of foreigners to us that want to cook their native dishes. I don't believe you missed it for such a long time."

Zoro shrugged and decided to take a stroll through the shop, looking in the now mostly empty boxes. He inspected one of every remaining kinds, occupying himself effectively till Nami announced the end of the day abut fifteen minutes later.

"Where do you want to go?" Zoro asked when they finally stood outside and Nami had locked the doors.

"You pay, your choice," Nami replied, looking him right in the eyes.

"Eh... I don't know any cafes nearby," Zoro looked away.

"Didn't you live in this neighborhood?" Nami asked with skepticism. This guy was really something.

"I did," Zoro confirmed her assumptions. "But there was little reason for me to go to cafes."  
Nami rolled her eyes. "I get it. Let's go."

The way to the cafe some streets away was an adventure in itself for Nami as Zoro appeared to not be able to follow directions or even a person that walked next to him. Nami's suspicion about his sense of direction grew stronger and stronger and when he continued walking even though Nami had entered the small cafe, she was sure that he was a lost case.

"Could it be that you have a terrible sense of direction?" Nami asked when they finally sat down, their coffees in front of them.

"What are you talking about?" surprise showed on Zoro's face. "My sense of direction is perfectly fine! The city just randomly renames streets!"

"Sure. And why would they do that?" Nami leaned back in her chair, obviously challenging Zoro.

"The hell I know. To confuse people like me?" he replied with a shrug. "They are politicians. They do shit like that!"

Nami let out a sigh, asking herself how somebody could believe that. "I can tell you that they don't change the street names."  
Zoro grumbled but didn't press the matter any further.

"So, how did your exams go?" he asked after a while of awkward silence, going for a neutral topic. "What do you study, by the way?"

"Diplomacy," Nami replied proudly. "and pretty well, thank you. What do you do?" she asked,when the question struck her.

"Interesting," Zoro nodded, impressed. It wasn't easy to get into diplomacy after all. "I am doing my doctor in philosophy."

"A doctor?" Nami rose an eyebrow. "Wow, you have gotten pretty far!"

"It was pure luck." Zoro leaned forward, his eyes not leaving Nami's face. "But how come that we never met on campus? I mean, you study here, don't you?"

Nami leaned forward as well, imitating her conversation partner. "I have no idea. Maybe you have not only bad sense of direction but a hard time recognizing people," she stated coldly.

"Bullshit," Zoro replied in the exact same voice.

They stared at each other for several minutes before finally erupting in laughter.

"You have balls," there was acknowledgment in Zoro's voice. "Unfortunately most chicken out when I stare at them like that."

Nami rolled her eyes and sat straight again. "Because you are soooo scary," she mocked him. "No, seriously. I have seen you cry. You won't scare me even if you try. But I can understand when people think twice before angering you when you look at them as if you were about to rip their head of."  
Zoro closed his eyes when he laughed, and ran a hand through his hair. "You seriously don't need to remind me of that."

Nami winked at him and took the cup with her now cold coffee in her hands. "Gosh, seems like we have forgotten about our drinks," she pouted. "Too bad."

It was Zoro's turn to roll his eyes before he picked up his cup and emptied it demonstratively in one go. "I don't know what should be bad about that," he shrugged, doing his best impression of an angelic expression, but failed miserably, making Nami laugh.

"We should definitely repeat this someday," she managed to say in between of laughter.

"Sure," Zoro replied, watching her with a smile.

* * *

Nami waved at Zoro when she saw him enter the cafeteria. She was sitting there with a book, waiting for her next lecture to start.

"Hey," he greeted her, "I'll gonna get something to eat and come back. I'm starving."  
Nami nodded and watched the man walk to the counter and talk to the cook.

Zoro was everything a woman could have asked for – tall, tanned, well- build with broad shoulders, a perfect ass and abs. He had a charming smile and an incredibly intense look. The only thing not adding to the whole was his green hair – but even that fitted the man perfectly.

Nami shook her head when she caught herself thinking those things. She felt like smashing her head against a wall, but explaining it would be a pain in the ass.

Besides, Zoro was gay!

"Is everything okay?" he asked as he saw down with a plate of food in front of him.

"Sure," Nami sighed. "I just don't feel like going to the next lecture. It's so boring. But it can't be helped I guess."

Zoro nodded. "Yeah, I understand that," he said with full mouth.

"Gosh, that's gross! Swallow before speaking!" Nami looked away, but somehow she was still grateful for that image. Now she had something she could imagine if the thoughts came back.

"By the way, can I get you number?" Zoro asked after finally having swallowed what had been in his mouth. "This way we can meet up when we want and not just when we randomly run into each other on campus or when I annoy you during work."

Nami tilt her head a bit, staring at Zoro. He really wasn't helping her cause.

"Only if you want," he added after several seconds of enduring her stare, not sure how he should interpret it.

"I was waiting for you to pull out your phone," Nami stated, remaining in the weird position.

Zoro raised an eyebrow but pulled out his phone anyway.

* * *

"I have never thought that I would ever meet somebody who can hold up against me in a drinking competition," Zoro admitted while walking Nami back to her flat after a night of drinking. He had his arms behind his head and stared into the sky. "Too bad there is so much light here. I miss the stars."  
"Hold up? You lost!" Nami poked Zoro into the ribs.

"Hey!" he cried out, catching her arm with his hand. "I let you win!" he replied with a grin while Nami struggled to get away but had no chance as he was holding her with a death grip while they continued walking.

"Sure! You underestimated me!" she pulled again with more force, still laughing, only to be pulled back by Zoro, tripping and ending in his arms.

Zoro didn't wait and caught her, not allowing her to run away and continue her mockery.

Nami looked up and her gaze met Zoro's. Only then both of them realized what situation they have gotten into.

"Can I try something?" Zoro whispered, looking at Nami in a way she hadn't seen before in the past six months they have been friends.

She nodded, not sure what else to do.

Zoro leaned forward and softly pressed his lips against hers, waiting for a response. Nami closed her eyes, kissing back, before pulling away with a ruck, yet staying in Zoro's arms.

"Wait!" she spoke up, "aren't you gay?"  
Zoro, who had been looking at her in a questioning look, worrying that he had fucked up, closed his eyes and a smile spread over his face. "I never said that," he replied calmly. "I'm bi."

The words barely left his lips and Nami had already pulled him back to herself, going for another kiss, and another.

They stood there and kissed for god knows how long until Nami broke the kiss again, this time without any force. "There will be a storm soon," she said, looking up to the sky, "we should go somewhere inside."  
Zoro looked at her with confusion but didn't protest when she grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction they had been going before.

"You know, I doubt that there will be rain, but good excuse to get me into your flat," Zoro commented while taking of his shoes when they finally arrived in the small apartment.

"It wasn't an excuse," Nami pointed to the window, "it's raining."

"Indeed," Zoro admitted with surprise when the first raindrops hit the glass. "Amazing."  
"Thank you," Nami gleamed.

"You are so stunning when you smile like that," Zoro stepped closer, his eyes not leaving Nami. He leaned down to kiss her again, and Nami swung her arms around his neck.

And they kissed and kissed, into the early morning hours, forgetting everything around them. After all, they found love where they had expected it least.


End file.
